UK’s motor vanity fair (16) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

Apart from the Congestion Charge making London such a liveable city compared to other metropolises, the UK’s capital is on the way to becoming “the electric car capital of Europe.”

This is the ambition of its Tory mayor, Boris Johnson, who announced over a year ago that he’s planning to invest £ 20 million in this ‘green project’.

Back then, Gordon Brown had promised that the UK Government would give the rest up to £ 60 million, as London couldn’t afford the entire investment.

But that was before the country’s finances went from bad to worse. Would David Cameron’s Government keep Brown’s commitment?

According to Johnson, cars like those in these images – the pics 3 & 4 being provided by C.L., a reader of this blog – should evolve from a mere peculiarity on London’s streets into being an ‘easy choice’ for Londoners.

Even his administration (Greater London Authority – GLA) is supposed to replace at least 1,000 of its fleet with electric vehicles.

It’s very likely that not all of them will be as little as those shown here, rivaling in size with most other small cars.

Actually, this G-Wiz car is smaller than Daimler’s Smart, and BMW’s Mini, and it’s obviously a strange type of vehicle (but already having a car club).

Meant to be driven almost exclusively within cities, not on motorways or country roads, such a car is sold for an average price of £ 7,000 – more than Tata Motors’ Nano :-)

A G-Wiz promises savings of over £ 9,000 per year, and has no carbon footprint… in case some buyers may still be fooled by this (anthropogenic) Global Warming swindle.

Some 100,000 electric cars should appear on London’s streets in a few years, and Johnson promises to build 25,000 charging points.

Not for the sake of reducing carbon emissions, but because such cars would make London even a more pleasant city, I wish Johnson’s ambition would turn into reality!

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

About public transport in the UK (3) [Despre transportul în comun în UK]

No, the image above is not that of a ghost town!... but one of a London street, shot from a double decker bus (London Route 11), somewhere near Victoria Station, on on the last Friday of January 2008, sometime around 20:00.

Therefore, this image speaks more than a thousand words about the effect of the infamous (for some) or brilliant (in my view) London congestion charge. Although it was well beyond 18:00 (when the restriction ends), I didn't see (then or in any other occasion!) many cars in the charging zone – which is really great, isn’t it?

Maybe this measure doesn’t do much for the congestion in the Greater London area, and maybe neither does it help significantly in the fight against global warming (which is already a typically British obsession that I certainly have many things to write about).

Nevertheless, it does a tremendous amout of good to the public transport, thus making London a very pleasant place to be from this point of view. When it comes to travelling above the ground, whether you can afford a taxi or have to rely on a bus, I can’t imagine anyone being late in London, due to external circumstances, and not due to their own fault.

On the other hand, the charge brings in money for London’s public transport system, as both the revenue from the £ 8 daily charge, and the fine (£ 60 to £ 180) imposed for non payment are meant to be used for this sole purpose – making travelling through London quicker, and more confortable for as many people as possible.

Not that I were a fan of the now ousted ‘Red Ken’ but I really liked most things about London’s public transport system for which he is credited for, especially the comfortable double deckers, which are limousines compared to Videanu’s awful Citaro buses, far worse that the DAFs, which this new generation of buses replaced.

And don’t worry that collecting the payments ‘strangles’ the traffic in some places or that the police have to chase motorists who enter ‘the zone’ without having paid. Again, Big Brother does it all almost by himself. CCTVs scan every licence plate, and easily find in a database those who paid or not before entering ‘the zone’ in a particualr moment of the day!

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

About public transport in the UK (1) [Despre transportul în comun în UK]

Assuming that most of those who would ever have anything to do with public transport (or public transportation in American English :-) in Great Britain understand the beautiful English language – I’m now beginning a new series.

I have a lot of good things to say, very few bad ones as well, but mostly neutral pieces of advice that could be gathered under the covers of A traveller’s Manual (here’s a useful Website bearing this name).

A first paradox that foreigners may soon come across is the fact that the whole transport system in the UK is both complex and easily comprehensible.

Complex – because there are so many means of transport, routes, operators, bewildering price differences, or stations/junctions (see how many only in Greater London). Easy – because there are posters, brochures, electronic billboards, and cheap (around £ 1) or free maps everywhere.

Moreover, if you can’t do it yourself online (here, here, here, here, here or here), someone at one of the equally numerous information desks would be pleased to help planning your journey. And even give you at least one A4 print page with routes, schedules, itinerary, and so on. Free of charge!!!

Some may see this as another exaggeration of the Nanny State (some kind of feminine version of Big Brother), but I honestly find it a good example of British civility.

For the first episode, I guess anyone could use some advice about travelling in a double decker bus. First of all, for hopping on only use the front door near the driver, to whom you’ll show your ticket or you’ll pay the money for one.

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You’re advised to have exact change, but don’t worry. In the worst case, a fellow passager could help you change a £ 10 or £ 20 bill.

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But then you should worry about not being caught on the relatively narrow stairs towards the upper deck when the bus takes a turn. You wouldn’t imagine, but losing one’s balance at well over two meters above the ground is very easy – I’m not kidding at all!!!

The red giant only stops where the driver sees people waiting (and he does see them, ‘cause the likelihood of cars obscuring the area near a bus shelter is more reduced here than in Bucharest) or if passangers signaled their willingness to get off. And they do this by pressing the little red buttons marked “STOP” that are of no use in Romanian buses.

No button pressed, no stop – therefore if you forget to do it, don’t start making a fool of yourselves in front of the CCTV cameras (sometimes up to four in one bus!) by asking explanations from the poor driver.

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How do you know where to hop off? Well, this is either announced by a pre-recorded voice message, the name of the next stop is alight on a screen, or you could ask the driver when you get on, and he’ll shout when your destination approaches.

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]